Who Says Tobacco Companies Arren't Tarketing Their Product At Teens? (1 Viewer)

[Shayne Lebrun]

Of COURSE people have the right to smoke; it's not illegal yet. But they don't have the right to force me to smoke, therefore they don't smoke around me. Similarly, I have the right to walk around naked, but not where they don't have to see me if they don't want to.

Here's the plan I came up with for getting rid of tobacco companies. For the next, say, five years, anybody of legal age can get a 'smoking' license. Real easy; just ask for one.

After the five year period, only people with the license can buy cigarettes. And they're limited to buying the equivalent of two packs a day. That way, no new people can get started, but people who are already addicted can merrily go on their way. The problem goes away in a generation.

I remember reading somewhere that if nicotine and alcohol were presented, out of the blue, to the FDA today, they'd be disapproved without hesitation. That smacks, of course, of urban legandism.

 

[Mark Lee]

Bhagi -
Re-reading my previous post, I realize that it might have been construed as blaming the secondhand smoke for worsening of their condition. Not at all. I agree with you in that their condition would most likely worsen as a natural course of the disease, rather than be directly attributable to a proximate cause (like secondhand smoke). What I was really driving at, was that with such poor lung function as it is (very often necessitating the use of a portable oxygen tank everywhere they go), one thing they don't need is a nearby cloud of airborne pollutants. (Though truth be told, many of the severe smoking-related emphysema/bronchitis patients I've seen still smoke....just walk into any VA hospital in the country, and check out the "smoking lounge." Remember Andy Garcia's character in Dead Again? Not an exaggeration.)